With the enhancement of electronic technologies, various kinds of electronic devices have been developed and distributed, and users are easily in touch with not only a large display apparatus such as a television (TV), but also a small display apparatus such as a smart phone, a tablet PC, etc. in their daily lives.
In addition, 3D display apparatuses which allow users to view 3D image screens are being distributed in recent years. The 3D display apparatus is divided into a type of system that requires special 3D classes, and a system that does not require glasses (e.g., a non-glasses type system).
As an example of the glasses-type system, a display apparatus of a shutter glasses method is used. The shutter glasses method refers to a method which outputs a left-eye image and a right-eye image alternately and opens and closes the left and right shutter glasses of 3D glasses that a user wears alternately in response to the alternating output of the left and right-eye images, so that the user can feel a sense of depth.
The non-glasses type system is referred to as an autostereoscopy system. A 3D display apparatus using the non-glasses method projects light corresponding to images of different points of view onto the left and right eyes of a viewer using a parallax barrier method, which displays a multi-view image shifted in space, or a lenticular lens, thereby making the user feel a sense of depth.
In particular, the display apparatus using the non-glasses system in the parallax barrier method includes a barrier to generate a binocular difference based on the locations of left-eye and right-eye pixels included in the display panel. Accordingly, in the display panel in a flat state, the barrier is located in front of the pixels so as to maintain a predetermined gap between the pixel and the barrier, so that the user can experience a 3D image without extra glasses.
However, in the case of a display apparatus having a curved display panel, if the barrier located in the existing parallax barrier method is used, the locations of the left-eye and right-eye pixels and the gap between the pixel and the barrier are changed by the related-art parallax barrier method, and thus the 3D effect can be reduced.
Therefore, there is a need for a method for controlling a location of a barrier to realize the 3D effect even when a curvature of a display panel is changed.